


Late-night Cuddles

by Chromi



Series: Deuce-centric [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: 30 Day NSFW Challenge, Frottage, Gentle Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M, Naked Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 17:44:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20429927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chromi/pseuds/Chromi
Summary: When Deuce arrives in Ace's room in the early hours of the morning, Ace's assumption is that he's wandered in drunk like Thatch sometimes does. But Deuce isn't drunk, and he's more than a little okay with Ace being nude under the bed covers...





	Late-night Cuddles

**Author's Note:**

> I'm 99.999% certain this is THE first Deuce/Ace fic on here. Do I get a medal?

Ace looked up at the sound of a soft knock to his bedroom door. He considered pretending to be asleep and ignoring it, given that he was naked under his sheets and his clothes were out of reach, hanging over the back of the chair at his desk. He really didn’t want another incident where Thatch rolled in drunk and climbed into bed with him, leaping out again almost immediately with a scream upon discovering that Ace wasn’t lying when he told the chef he wasn’t wearing anything.

“Yeah?” Ace called tentatively, fully prepared to cocoon himself in his blankets in defence if Thatch stumbled through the door.

Only it wasn’t Thatch at all - it was Deuce.

Ace relaxed at the sight of his former first mate, releasing his iron grip on the edges of the blanket. He couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t surprised to see him stood there, silhouetted against the moonlight following behind him through the open door. “Fair warning, I’m not wearing anything under here,” he said, grinning at Deuce’s dark figure in the doorway. Even when thrown entirely into shadow he could recognise him anywhere.

His grin slid into a gape of surprise as he saw Deuce slip his coat off his shoulders and lay it on the barely used desk. He nudged the door shut with his foot as he unbuckled his belt and pants, murmuring, “fine by me.”

Ace sought the correct words to say at this unexpected turn of events, but nothing more eloquent than, “are you drunk?” came out of his mouth.

Deuce huffed a small laugh. Ace heard his pants hit the floor with a soft thud, and then Deuce bent to pull off his boots as well.

“I haven’t had anything alcoholic today,” he said, straightening up; Ace could see in the dim light provided by the moon seeping through the gap in the curtains that Deuce now only had his boxer briefs left on. “Mind if I join you?”

Ace’s mouth went completely dry as he stared at Deuce. This wasn’t like him at all, and Ace started to question whether this was part of an elaborate dare or a prank set up by one of the other commanders (not naming anyone called Haruta).

OK, so _maybe _they had kissed a couple of weeks back when Ace had returned from a mission. _Maybe _he had been overjoyed to see Deuce among the crowd for once, smiling wide and excited to see him again after being away for several days, and _maybe _Ace had led him away by the hand and had kissed him utterly senseless up against the wall of a random store room… Only to have then been caught by Marco, because clearly the guy couldn’t keep his beak out of other people’s business and had noticed them scurrying away. They hadn’t spoken about the heated make-out session since, Deuce always promptly remembering he had something to do and quite literally running away whenever Ace approached him.

So maybe Deuce’s appearance and acceptance of Ace’s current state was in part due to that event. Maybe.

Ace shifted backwards to make room for Deuce and held the blanket up for him, indicating that he was welcome, and Deuce crossed the couple of paces to the bed and climbed in. He made to wrap an arm around Ace, but seemed to think better of it at the last second and lay his arm along his side instead. Ace could feel his breath gently tickling his cheeks, they were so close.

“So, hi,” Ace said awkwardly, breaking the silence, “nice evening, isn’t it?”

He wasn’t remotely surprised that Deuce ignored this.

“I’ve been thinking about the other day a lot,” the doctor said, and Ace actually _felt _him heat up at his admittance, “in fact, it’s _all _I’ve been thinking about. What were you thinking?”

“I would have thought that was obvious,” Ace said, surprised, “I was thinking I wanted to kiss you, so I did.”

He could see every wrinkle between Deuce’s brows at this distance when he frowned at him. “Don’t make me spell it out, Ace.”

Ace grinned, realising in that moment that he himself was getting warmer with nerves, too. Deuce was so _close_, barely inches between them, yet he didn’t make any move to close that space. Ace was acutely aware of how his very bare, very naked dick was twitching into life between them at Deuce’s arrival; he was sure it would brush up against Deuce’s abdomen if he didn’t think of something to make it go down.

_Thatch’s hairy chest, Thatch’s hairy chest, Thatch’s hairy chest…_

But nope, even that horror wasn’t enough to fool his senses into forgetting that Deuce was right there in bed with him.

“I don’t have an explanation,” Ace said more seriously, his grin dropping from his lips. “I’ve wanted to do it for ages now, and when you looked so happy to see me back, I couldn’t stop myself. But you kissed back!” he added, pre-empting any rejection Deuce might dish out despite having just quite happily stripped and got into bed with his naked ex-captain, “you started with the tongues, too!”

Deuce reached out and pulled Ace in closer by the back of his head, raising his own off the pillow to angle and kiss him softly. Ace inhaled into the kiss, responding wholeheartedly as if he had been waiting for this exact moment, and honestly he had, had been patient and let Deuce think things through at his own pace because he didn’t tend to act immediately on his emotions and needed plenty of time to process things, unlike Ace.

Ace exhaled a sigh as they parted and Deuce breathed it in, taking in his breath and making it his own. “You’ve wanted to do it for ages?” he echoed, his cheeks flushed.

“Yeah,” Ace breathed, tucking a stray strand of Deuce’s hair behind his ear, “ever since before we joined Pops. I just… how do you bring up something like that? What if you’d said no? I would have lost you, Deuce. And then I stopped thinking for a second and you kissed back and—”

He was silenced by Deuce kissing him again, leaning into the feel of his fingers curling in his hair at the back of his head. Fuck, there was no way Deuce couldn’t feel him responding to the kiss, not when he was hardening up against the flat of his toned abs like _that_.

“I have you beat,” Deuce smiled to Ace’s lips, “I’ve been in love with you ever since the moment we left Sixis together.”

And Deuce’s lips were sliding against his again, his tongue licking Ace’s lips apart and gliding against his own so sensually that he had Ace shuddering. Ace rolled his hips forward into the feel of Deuce touching his erection tentatively, almost nervously, trailing his fingers along the length of it before pressing the flat of his palm against it.

But love? _Love? _That was one thing Ace hadn’t expected to hear. Wasn’t love a little too strong a word to use here? He didn’t know. All he knew was that Deuce lit a fire within him that he hadn’t experienced before in his life, and it made him want to kiss him and touch him and feel every inch of him.

There was one thing Ace was sure he loved, though, and that was the way Deuce shivered when Ace slid his fingers between the waistband of his underwear and his warm skin. Deuce raised his hips just enough to allow Ace to slide them off, breaking the kiss and removing his hand from Ace’s cock (much to Ace’s displeasure) to scrabble under the sheets and fling the offending garment off onto the floor of the bedroom.

“Come here,” Ace said warmly, pulling Deuce in close again and wrapping a leg around his hips to bring them flush together.

Deuce’s moan at the feeling of their cocks sliding up against each other was swallowed by Ace’s eager lips, capturing him again and licking into his mouth. It felt so good, so _right_, curling around him and feeling Deuce’s heat throbbing against his own. Deuce made a small, surprised noise in his throat as Ace shifted and pulled him on top, arching up into Deuce’s weight flush along his own body. Deuce leaned back a little, supporting himself with his forearms lying firm on either side of Ace’s head, and Ace felt a breath escape him at the sight above him.

The moonlight caught Deuce’s pale hair perfectly, turning it almost silver in it’s light, and he looked so torn between anxious and pleasantly surprised to find himself pressed so intimately up against his former captain. Ace’s gaze trailed over Deuce’s broad shoulders where the moonlight threw his muscles into sharp relief, across over his strong chest that hovered over Ace’s own, and back up to his handsome, masked face.

Ace could honestly say that he was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in that moment.

Ace reached up a hand to tuck that stray strand of hair behind Deuce’s ear again, and Deuce caught it in his own. He pressed a kiss to Ace’s palm that made him giggle at the ticklish sensation, then held it to his own cheek, leaning into the touch. Ace ran his thumb over Deuce’s cheek affectionately, returning the smile that his friend wore.

“Fuck, Deuce, you’re perfect.”

Deuce huffed a laugh. “I was going to say something similar.”

Ace closed his eyes to the feeling of Deuce’s lips on his again, readily surrendering to that sweet ache of affection and lust. He moved in tandem with him, as if this were a practised art they had perfected rather than being their first time in bed together, as Deuce began to roll his hips against his, their movements slow and deliberate and controlled. It felt indescribable, the gentle press and pull of Deuce’s cock sliding against his own, Deuce’s stomach catching at Ace’s foreskin and rolling it down a little more with every shift of his hips, the way he whimpered into Ace’s mouth when he stroked down Deuce’s sides to squeeze at the swell of his ass.

Gray caught blue as Deuce broke the kiss to look at Ace beneath him, searching his eyes. They didn’t say a word and didn’t break eye contact for several seconds, simply watching each other under lids heavy with desire, their breathing growing more labored under their continued movements. Ace could almost count every one of Deuce’s eyelashes like this.

The moment came to an abrupt end when Deuce rubbed against Ace just _right_, the heat in the pit of his abdomen curling tighter as he threw his head back into the pillow with a soft gasp.

“_Deuce,”_ Ace moaned, pulling him more insistently into his hips and arching his back to feel more, _more _of him. Deuce responded wholly, pecking a kiss to Ace’s chin before moving to pepper a trail down his throat, and Ace exhaled hot and needy into the steadily heating air around them.

A low, passionate groan was pulled from Deuce and Ace moved to swallow it, to feast on his arousal, because this was everything he had fantasised about and more. Deuce felt better to touch than Ace had ever dreamed of, was far gentler in his kisses than he had been that night when Ace had pinned him to the wall, and his warmth engulfed and rivalled even Ace’s.

The constant, gentle rock of his hips into Ace’s was as intimate an act as any he had ever imagined, far more personal and sensual than sex, and every bit as fulfilling because it was _Deuce_, it was _Deuce _dragging wetter and wetter against him the closer he got, and Ace knew he himself was no better off.

He panted into Deuce’s open mouth, the kiss slowing to match the roll of their hips, each motion long and firm and _delicious. _This slow, loving drag of hips flush to hips was total perfection, working Ace up faster than any frenzied rhythm of his own hand pulling at his cock had ever achieved.

“Deuce, ‘s so _good_, I’m— _I’m_—” was all the warning Deuce got before Ace was shivering beneath him, arching up into his partner so beautifully and releasing warm between them. Deuce followed with a sigh that bordered a moan, burying his face into Ace’s neck and mixing their seed together, trapped between them.

They lay together as they caught their breaths, Ace running his fingers through Deuce’s hair absent-mindedly as he rode out the pleasant aftershocks of his orgasm.

He was brought back to reality very suddenly by the feeling of something wet to his neck, and when he gently coaxed Deuce into raising his face to look at him, Ace saw his former first mate was doing his best to blink back tears.

“Shit, did I do something wrong?” Ace asked, panic puncturing his blissful little bubble of afterglow, but Deuce gave a small, wet laugh and shook his head.

“It was perfect,” he said quietly, “_you _were perfect. You _are _perfect. I’m just…” he sighed, breath shaky, “I’m just overwhelmed, I think. I can’t believe we’ve finally… I can’t begin to tell you how much I…”

Ace silenced him with a kiss, firmer than the soft, intimate touches they had enjoyed. “Stay with me tonight.” It wasn’t a question, and Ace felt the thrill of a shiver run up Deuce’s spine at the assurance in his tone. “We’ll clean up, fall asleep cuddling all cutesy like we’ve both secretly been dying to do, and when we wake up…” he trailed off suggestively, raising an eyebrow with a grin.

“And when we wake up,” Deuce continued, drying his eyes on a tissue he grabbed from the nightstand, “I’ll make love to you over and over.” He laughed at the face Ace pulled at this.

“Ugh, that is _so _cheesy,” he said, although he didn’t actually mind it. Deuce could call it whatever he wanted; Ace would take it. He knew he’d never refuse anything that Deuce gave him.

And, after cleaning up the mess over their stomachs, they fell asleep in each others’ arms - content, and happy, and very, very much looking forward to falling asleep like that together whenever times allowed them to.


End file.
